Former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard gives credit to her parents for encouraging her to be ambitious. Gillard spoke of her family home being “free of gender stereotypes” despite growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, when women were expected to primarily be caregivers.

“I wasn’t taught to aim to be a wife and a mother and not worry about a career,” Gillard said during The Economic Times Women’s Forum in Mumbai.

She found support at her local school too. But that is not to say that “childish skirmishes with sexism” didn’t exist. Like the art teacher who expected the girls to clean up after class or that in secondary school, the boys learnt woodwork, metalwork and electronics, and the girls cooking, sewing and laundry.

The last one was her favourite, she said, giving her a unique bragging right. “I am possibly the only G20 former world leader who can give you advice on laundering a silk shirt,” Gillard said.